Animals

You're Beautiful

by Simon Armitage

because you're classically trained.
I'm ugly because I associate piano wire with strangulation.

You're beautiful because you stop to read the cards in newsagents' windows
about lost cats and missing...

Ted Hughes is Elvis Presley

by Ian McMillan

Ted Hughes is Elvis Presley

I didn't die
that hot August night.
I faked it,

stuffed a barrage balloon
into a jump suit.
Left it slumped
on the bathroom floor.

...

Animals

by John Burnside

Animals

for Allison Funk

There are nights when we cannot name
the animals that flit across our headlights

even on moonlit journeys, when the road
is eerie and still

and we...